A common injury, especially among athletes and people of advancing age, is the complete or partial detachment of tendons, ligaments, or other soft tissues from bone. Tissue detachment may occur during a fall, by overexertion, or for a variety of other reasons. Surgical intervention is often needed, particularly when tissue is completely detached from its associated bone. Currently available devices for tissue attachment include screws, staples, suture anchors, and tacks. Currently available devices for patients of advancing age can be particularly insufficient due to degenerated tissue leading to inadequate suture-to-anchor fixation and further damage to the soft tissue.
Repair constructs made from one or more surgical filaments are typically used in soft tissue repair procedures, e.g., rotator cuff fixations, to secure the tissue in a desired location. The repair constructs are typically disposed through one or more portions of the tissue to be repaired, which can cause trauma to the tissue, and are often coupled to anchors disposed in bone to which the tissue is to be approximated. Further, in situations where the soft tissue has already begun to degenerate, the added pressure applied by the sutures can cause further damage to the tissue, for instance by causing abrasion of the tissue or “cheese-wiring,” which refers to one or more strings of tissue peeling away from the main tissue like a string of cheese peels away from a cheese block when a wire cheese slicer is used to separate cheese from the block. In other words, because the suture has a small surface area, and a significant amount of force is being applied to the soft tissue over the small surface area of the tissue, the suture may have a tendency to cut into the already compromised tissue, thus causing further damage. Currently available solutions to this problem include the application of a relatively large formation of allograft or xenograft, typically about 3 centimeters by about 3 centimeters, to the soft tissue after the repair has been performed but prior to tightening the soft tissue down with the suture. The application of the formation, however, is often expensive, necessitates many sutures, and requires a high skill level to operate and is thus used by only a select few surgeons. Further, the application of the relatively large formation can add a significant amount of time to a surgical procedure, on the order of an additional half hour to one hour per allograft or xenograft formation applied.
It is therefore desirable to provide systems, devices, and methods for use in soft tissue repair that are robust, strong, and promote healing, yet minimize the costs and time of the procedure.